New Jersey book series in reading order

by David Rosenfelt

by Janet Evanovich

by Rich Wallace

Janet Evanovich

79 books• 13 series

Stephanie Plum, a bail bond agent turned bounty hunter, is the recurring lead of Janet Evanovich's longest series. Evanovich writes humorous mystery and romance, and the catalogue holds 79 books from Full House (1981) to Split Second in 2026. Other recurring lines include Kate O'Hare & Nicolas Fox, Lizzy & Diesel, Knight and Moon, Alexandra Barnaby and the Culhane Family.

Andy Carpenter leads David Rosenfelt's longest series, a run of legal mysteries set in New Jersey in which dogs recur throughout. Rosenfelt's catalogue holds 49 titles, opening with Open and Shut (2002) and running to Bark Humbug (2026). The K Team and Doug Brock series and a set of standalone novels complete the list. Murder trials and investigation are the recurring subjects.

Chris Grabenstein

54 books• 14 series

Chris Grabenstein is an American author who writes for adults and for children, the children's books often with collaborator James Patterson. Grabenstein's first novel, Tilt-a-Whirl, appeared in 2005; the John Ceepak mysteries are the police-procedural strand, set in New Jersey. On the children's side sit Mr. Lemoncello's Library, Welcome to Wonderland, the Haunted Mystery books, Dog Squad and The Smartest Kid In The Universe. Fifty-seven books are catalogued through 2026, the newest being Mr. Lemoncello's Wondermous Christmas Gift.

Valerie Wilson Wesley writes mysteries, adult novels and children's books, and was an executive editor of Essence magazine. Tamara Hayle, a woman private investigator in New Jersey, heads one series; Odessa Jones and Harriet Stone head two more, and Willimena Rules! and the Book Of Black Heroes are for younger readers. The catalogue holds 28 books published between 1991 and 2025, from Great Women in the Struggle (1991) to The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum (2025). African American women, schools and sisters run through the subject headings.

Meesha Mink is a pen name of Niobia Bryant, a novelist born in Newark, New Jersey, who publishes romance and mainstream fiction under her own name and urban and crime fiction as Mink. Eight books stand under the Meesha Mink name, from Desperate Hoodwives (2008) to All Hail the Queen (2015), taking in The Hood Life, On the Grind, Get Money, Hustle Hard and Kiss the Ring. Two series carry the name: Bentley Manor and Real Wifeys. Catalogue subjects record urban and street lit, African American women, inner cities, revenge and contemporary romance. All 8 books carry page counts, a median of 284.

Joyce Carol Oates

180 books• 8 series

Joyce Carol Oates, born June 16, 1938, is an American writer of novels, short stories, poetry, plays and nonfiction. The catalogue holds 180 books, beginning with By the North Gate (1963) and reaching The Frenzy: Stories (2026). Oates took the National Book Award for the novel Them (1969), and later honours include two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal and the Jerusalem Prize in 2019. Black Water, What I Lived For, Blonde and the collection Lovely, Dark, Deep were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014.

Brad Parks writes mystery and thriller fiction, split between standalone domestic suspense and the Carter Ross Mystery series. Carter Ross is an investigative reporter who covers crime for the Newark Eagle-Examiner, a fictional newspaper in Newark, New Jersey. The Parks catalogue runs to 15 books, from Faces of the Gone (2009) to The Flack (2026), and continues. Parks has taken the Shamus Award twice, the Nero Award once and the Lefty Award twice.

Jon Katz

36 books• 1 series

Dogs and farm life fill the later part of Jon Katz's catalogue; crime fiction fills the earlier. Katz, born in 1947, is an American journalist and photographer who wrote for HotWired, Slashdot and Slate, and whose first books include the Suburban Detective novels and the character Kit Deleeuw. Writing on geek subculture followed, then a long sequence on the relationship between people and animals, closing with Gus's Year in 2020. Thirty-six titles in all.

Harlan Coben

41 books• 8 series

Harlan Coben, born January 4, 1962, is an American writer whose honours include an Edgar Award, a Shamus Award and an Anthony Award. Coben's books have been translated into 46 languages and have sold more than 90 million copies. The 41 books catalogued here start with Play Dead (1990) and reach Plot Twist (2026). Subjects attached to them include thrillers, missing persons, sports agents and the fictional character Myron Bolitar. Coben's series include Mickey Bolitar, Wilde and Windsor Horne Lockwood III.

Janet Dailey

161 books• 16 series

Janet Anne Haradon Dailey (1944-2013) was an American author of romance novels, translated into nineteen languages and sold in the hundreds of millions of copies. The Dailey catalogue holds 161 books opening with No Quarter Asked (1974), followed by state-titled entries including Savage Land: Texas (1974), Darling Jenny: Wyoming (1975) and Dangerous Masquerade: Alabama (1976). Subjects cover contemporary and historical romance, western romance, ranch life, love stories, Christmas stories and the Calder family. Series listed include the Calder Saga, New Americana, Tylers of Texas, Bannon Brothers and Christmas Tree Ranch. The listing also carries titles dated after 2013, running to Kill for a Million (2026).

Domestic fiction is Diane Chamberlain's form: mothers and daughters, sisters, marriages and friendships, with North Carolina and New Jersey as the usual settings. Chamberlain's 32 catalogued books open with Lovers and Strangers (1990) and include the Keeper of the Light Trilogy, Before The Storm, Necessary Lies and Pretending To Dance. The Last House on the Street is the most recent title, and the catalogue has been dormant since 2022.

Ghosts and New Jersey settings recur across E.J. Copperman's mysteries. Seven series sit in the catalogue, led by the Haunted Guesthouse Mysteries, which opened with Night of the Living Deed in 2010, and joined by Jersey Girl, Asperger's Mysteries, Fran and Ken Stein Mystery, Mysterious Detective, Agent To The Paws Mysteries and Haunted Paint Store Mysteries. Copperman has published 32 books, the most recent being Where There's Smoke... (2026).

Max Allan Collins

199 books• 34 series

Max Allan Collins, born March 3, 1948, is an American mystery writer who also works in comics, graphic novels and screenplays. Collins created the Ms. Tree and Road to Perdition comics, the second of which became a film, and the series characters Quarry, a hitman, Nolan, a thief, and private investigator Nate Heller. Collins wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for years, and the Mystery Writers of America named Collins a Grand Master in 2017. Catalogue entries run from Bait Money (1973) to Quarry's Reunion (2026), with Eliot Ness, Mallory and Disaster among the other series.

Tom Perrotta

15 books• 3 series

Tom Perrotta, born Thomas R. Perrotta on August 13, 1961, is an American novelist and screenwriter. Election (1998) and Little Children (2004) are Perrotta's best-known novels, and both became films nominated for Academy Awards; Perrotta and Todd Field co-wrote the 2006 Little Children screenplay, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Leftovers (2011) became an HBO series co-created by Perrotta and Damon Lindelof. The catalogue opens with Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies (1994) and includes The Wishbones (1997), Joe College (2000) and The Abstinence Teacher (2007), with Ghost Town (2026) the newest. Tracy Flick is the listed series, and New Jersey and suburban life appear in the subjects.

Sarah Strohmeyer

21 books• 1 series

Bubbles Yablonsky, a Pennsylvania hairdresser drawn into solving crimes, is Sarah Strohmeyer's best known creation. Strohmeyer writes crime novels and comic fiction about relations between men and women, starting with the parody Barbie Unbound (1997) and running to A Mother Always Knows (2025), 21 titles in all. The Bubbles books, Bubbles Unbound (2001), Bubbles In Trouble, Bubbles Ablaze, Bubbles Betrothed, Bubbles All The Way, fill the first decade. Female friendship, journalists and humour mark the subject tags.

Sport drives Rich Wallace's fiction for young readers. Basketball and soccer supply most of the plots, with teamwork, sportsmanship, competition and self-confidence among the listed subjects, across the Winning Season, Kickers, Game Face and Up2u series. Wallace's 43 catalogued books start at Riding Time and Wrestling Sturbridge in 1996 and end with Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men (2021). Volumes are short, at a median of 117 pages.

Terence Faherty, born 1954, is an American writer of mystery novels. Two detective sequences organise the catalogue, Owen Keane Mystery and Scott Elliott Mystery, and both Owen Keane and Scott Elliott are recorded as fictitious characters. Private investigators, murder, the motion picture industry, legal material, Indiana, New Jersey and Hollywood sit among the subjects. The 24 books run from Deadstick (1991) to The Cardboard Box (2019), with Live To Regret (1992), The Lost Keats (1993) and Die Dreaming (1994) early in the sequence. The median book is 250 pages.

Wallace Stroby, born in 1960, is an American crime novelist and journalist. Four of the novels feature Crissa Stone, a professional thief. Two series are catalogued to the name: Crissa Stone and Harry Rane. Recorded subjects include crime, female offenders, hard-boiled mystery, private investigators, policewomen and New Jersey. Ten books run from The Barbed-Wire Kiss (2003) to Heaven's a Lie (2021), taking in Gone 'til November (2010), Cold Shot to the Heart (2011), Shoot the Woman First (2013) and Some Die Nameless (2018).